5 | P a g e
Evidence Informed Practitioner and Organisation Social Work Module
(SWK 751)
Title of Systematic Narrative Review
Trauma-Informed Practice in
Criminal Justice
Abstract
Context:
Although trauma-informed practice has attracted considerable attention in the
last two decades (Champine et al, 2019), few rigorous empirical studies have
documented the practicalities of trauma-informed practice in criminal justice
settings. Bunting et al (2018) determined trauma-informed practice held
potential for the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland. This systematic
narrative review sought to build upon this by reviewing the international
research in criminal justice settings and consider how the findings translate for
probation practitioners working in PBNI.
Methods employed in the review:
On 30 July 2020, three databases,
PsycINFO
Criminal Justice Abstracts
Social Care Online
were systematically searched, using two concept groups, "trauma-informed"
AND "criminal justice". For consistency, text-term searching was employed and
pruned for each database:
("trauma-informed" OR "trauma informed" OR "trauma-sensitive" OR "trauma
sensitive") AND ("criminal justice" OR "probation" OR "parole" OR "law
enforcement" OR "adjudicat*" OR "forensic" OR "correction*" OR "offend*" OR
"prepetrat*")
In total, 261 articles were retrieved. Pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria
were applied. Seventeen articles were selected for the review due to their
relevance to trauma-informed practice in criminal justice. Information was
extracted and the articles were quality appraised to facilitate a narrative
synthesis of the emergent themes.